


Not Awful

by mystery_notebook



Category: League of Legends
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:32:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5721181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mystery_notebook/pseuds/mystery_notebook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zac refuses to let Twitch hang out in his house unless he takes a goddamn bath.<br/>That's it, that's the plot. Slightly shippy. I don't know why I wrote this but god knows there's worse out there</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Awful

Zac turns the tap on, hot water billowing out to fill the washtub. Twitch looks nervous, now-- not scared or repulsed, but like he’s weighing the consequences of what exactly he agreed to.

 

“And you’re sure this won’t kill me?”

 

Zac laughs, deep and rich as per usual. “No, it won’t kill you.” He opens the IN CASE OF GUEST box he keeps under his sink, full of things that non-blobs might need like band-aids and soap. There are three or four small bottles of the latter, and Zac pulls them all out to set in front of his disgusting friend.

 

“Which scent do you think you can stand? There’s cucumber, lavender, _demacian breeze,_ and lemon.”

 

Twitch screws up his snout, wishing that normal people produced soaps that smelled like bleu cheese or something, at least. “I’ll… have to think about it. Help me get out of this coat.”

 

Zac knows he’s just trying to kill time before having to confront the awful tub of water, but he humors him and stretches out, pulling the rat a little closer to where he’s kneeling. He unfastens the leather straps wrapped around him, the bottles full of toxin clinking together as he tries to pull them off. To be fair, Twitch actually does have trouble getting these things on and off-- but between him and Zac they’re undone and discarded in no more than a minute or two. While Twitch pushes his goggles off his face and up onto his head, Zac turns backwards to turn the tap off. The lack of noise is a little jarring. Only a little.

 

Twitch makes a small noise of irritance, maybe, as Zac grabs his lapels with translucent fingers. Off comes the jacket, one sleeve after another. The strange metal object Twitch has bolted to it as armor clanks when it hits the floor.

 

“Settled on a soap yet?” Zac says again, easing Twitch’s goggles from out behind his ears. His friend groans, not wanting to even think about it, but finally averts his eyes before answering in an almost defensive tone. “Lemon. I ate a lemon once. It was… not awful.”

 

The green blob smiles, pushing the other vials of soap to the side. He picks up Twitch like he’s nothing and sits him on the edge of the tub-- Twitch bares his teeth in surprise, but at this point he’d let Zac chuck him into the fucking sun.  He kicks off his boots and unfastens his arm guards, sliding them off with his teeth. “And you’re _sure_ this won’t kill me.”

 

Zac laughs again as he sweeps the boots and guards towards the rest of Twitch’s discarded things. “I’m sure. Do you want to get in?”

 

Twitch looks down at himself, gnawing at his lower lip. He really does look like a _rat_ without his trademark outfit on, more akin to a common garden pest than any unspeakable terror of the sewers. He looks back up at Zac, who’s still sitting there smiling with that damn vial of soap in wait. Twitch groans. “Fine. Fine, fine, fine! Let’s get on with it! Nothing scares Twitch. Certainly not a tub of hot water.”

 

He turns around and puts his feet in, a shiver running through him before he lowers all the way in. It’s hot and wet against his fur, like his whole body is being turned to soup. Nothing all like the freezing cold stormwater showers he takes at home. Zac pops his head up onto the side.

 

“Okay so far?”

Twitch grunts. “Sure, so far.”

 

“Nice. I’m going to try and wash all that dirt out of your fur.” He stretches up to kneeling height by the tub again, unscrewing the stopper of the dreaded vial. “If you want me to stop, just say.”

 

Twitch grunts again.

 

The soap smells like lemons, obviously, and thankfully not the sugary type they sell as candy. Zac pours a bit into his hands and rubs them together, generating foam as if by magic. “Head first?”

 

Twitch submerges and resurfaces the other way, poking his tail out of the water. “Tail first.”

 

Zac grabs the finicky thing with both hands and scrubs it from top to bottom, Twitch humming to himself whenever Zac hits a weird spot. He moves on to his haunches, and then the small of his back.

 

“Are you still doing okay?”

 

“I suppose.”

 

Zac keeps doing what he’s been doing, working the lather into weathered fur. Twitch rests his chin on the edge of the tub.

 

“I just don’t get why normal people-- and _you_ , I guess-- like these fake sweet smells so much.”

 

“It’s positive association,” Zac replies. “Good scents remind me of good times. I’m sure you like the smell of mold because it reminds you of home. But I like the smell of… cinnamon rolls, maybe, for the exact same reason.”

 

Twitch shifts in the water, closing his eyes and letting Zac shampoo his fur. “Interesting. What do lemons remind you of, then?”

 

Zac thinks for a moment. “Summer. Trees and grass. Picnics, maybe. That kind of thing.”

 

Twitch snorts. “Fair enough. Can’t say I understand it.” Some small part of him, though, is happy to smell like something Zac likes.

 

The minutes melt away as Twitch lets himself be cleaned all over, turning around to bare his belly and letting Zac scrub and rinse the wet fur that clings to his frame like moss.

 

“Alright. Only one bit of you left.”

 

Twitch dips down again, coming back up like an alligator in a river. “Ech.”

 

Zac laughs again, to himself, before anointing the sewer rat with soap. He calmly works it into his scalp, pausing when Twitch comes up for air.

 

And when he brings his hands to the back of his head and scratches behind his ears, Twitch _sighs_. Deeply. Happily. His eyes snap open immediately after, jolting away from Zac’s touch-- “Ach, no! Never mind, never mind! Done with the bath. No more of this!”

Zac pulls away, a half smile on his face. “Sure thing, buddy. I really thought you were enjoying yourself, though.”

 

“No, I’m...! Not at all! I was just putting up with it to be nice.”

 

“Fine,” Zac smirks. “Fair enough. The only thing left to wash was your ears, but if you’re done then we can leave them as they are.”

 

Twitch looks distressed, like he’s trying to make a tough decision. Zac leans back over the tub.

 

“Well?”

 

“Just do the ears. I’ll try and not…. make that sound again.”

 

Zac puts his fingers back through Twitch’s fur, smiling once again. “If that’s what you’re worried about, I really don’t mind.”

 

Twitch can barely contain himself when Zac touches his ears. It’s like everything is finally perfect-- the bath is lukewarm (his favorite temperature) and his body feels weirdly _fresh_ as it floats in the dirt-and-lemon soup of the bathwater. And with Zac’s gummy hands stroking his ears like this….. It’s just too much. Twitch lets out a series of happy little rat noises, embarrassed but content, leaning his head back in towards Zac. Zac feels like he’d be blushing if his physiology allowed for it.

 

Soon enough, Twitch hoists himself out and dries himself off the best he can with a fluffy red towel. Zac sits with him on the floor, as the two listen to some Zaunian radio program. Twitch sighs.

 

“So being clean is….”

 

Twitch trails off halfway, noticing that Zac’s hand has found its way to his ears again. He almost lets out another embarrassing noise, but stops himself halfway. Coughing, he continues.

 

“....Not awful. I mean, you know. Compared to other worse things.”

 

He leans against Zac, who’s laughing again, and lets himself be pet while the radio plays on. It’s the first time that they’ve been this close, really, and Twitch makes a small mental note that Zac likes him a bit better when he’s clean. Not worth pursuing in the _long run_ , of course, but if Zac ever offers another bath then he thinks he’ll be happy to give it a go. He mulls it over for a while, before moving on to think of ways to make and market bleu cheese soap.

For the most part, though, he’s just glad to be here; He’ll go home later and happily ruin it all again, but for now he’s damp and fluffy and in the arms of his favorite giant slime.


End file.
